Head in the Clouds
by Darkfire Galaxy
Summary: Set just after Episode 4. When an incident during training leaves Cammie incapacitated, the team decide they need to find an answer quickly. But how serious is Cammie's condition really? And could the answer be closer than they think?


Gen:Lock

Head in the Clouds

'_You won't get me like that again_!' Cammie thought furiously as she spun to try and shoot the drone that was hovering behind her. The shot went massively wide and she ended up tripping over her own legs yet again, landing heavily with a metallic clang. When she tried to stand up and look, she noticed that her elbow had cracked the ground. Unfortunately, she didn't get time to dwell on it as all three drones hovering around her fired in unison, the chainguns hammering coloured powder rounds into her from multiple angles and smashing her into the ground like multiple jackhammers on her back.

"Okay, I think this is a good point to stop." Leon pressed a button and all the drones obediently flew back into their wall compartments, the doors shutting behind them as they shut down on their charging docks to replenish their batteries and so that the automatic ammo feeders could re-arm them. "You don't have much up time left anyway. Why not go watch Val in the sparring ring?"

"Yeah, go watch the others rub it in." Cammie muttered drily, flipping Leon off as she walked over to the gigantic boxing ring that had been set up specifically for the Holons. As usual, Valentina was sparring with Kazu and it was a totally unfair match-up. Kazu charged forward like a bull similar to the great master of his RoboShogun mangas. Valentina was ready and dropped onto her back, spinning round and kicking her legs out, and cutting Kazu's kneecaps from behind him. He tried to grab her leg on the way down, but she spun right, wrapping his arm around both her legs and dropping as she did so. Now Kazu was pinned and had no effective way to fight back as the heel of Val's palm slammed into his face just behind his eye.

"Match over!" Miranda called, waving her arms to stop the match. "You're close to up time. Everybody back to the hangar for download." Everyone nodded and started to head inside with Cammie falling behind.

"Everything okay there, Cammie," Val asked, turning to her with concern plain in her voice.

"I don't feel right." Cammie replied truthfully.

"How can you not feel right when you're a cybernetic brain uploaded into a robot body?" Yaz asked, walking back over and still keeping an eye on her up time counter. Kazu and Chase had already docked, but were looking over with concern.

"I just..." Cammie only got that far. The lights in her eyes suddenly went dark and she collapsed forward, landing heavily in Valentina's outstretched arms.

"Doctor, did you just pull Cammie?" Yaz asked, trying not to panic until she had to.

"No, something's wrong with the system!" As soon as they heard the panic in Doctor Weller's voice, they instantly knew this was serious. "She appears to be desynchronising somehow! I'm pulling you all now. It doesn't matter where you are. Hangar crews can clean up the mess. Yaz, I need your medic qualification on hand. She's going to have a rough exit!"

"Copy that!" Yaz replied before taking a knee to make securing her Holon body easier on the crews. Val did the same, staggering a bit as she compensated for Cammie's added weight before they were suddenly ripped from their collective consciousness. Suddenly, their eyes snapped open in their pods as the lids opened. Yaz hopped out and instantly collapsed as her brain adjusted to using a different set of legs.

"Yasamin, I need you over here now!" Weller yelled. Caliban was at her side in an instant, hauling her to her feet and dragging her over to Cammie's pod. Cammie was in there, convulsing violently. As Yaz worked to do what she could while Val and Kazu ran to get a trauma kit, Chase mixed into the centre of the room and turned to Caliban.

"Cal, can you upload me to the GL mainframe but not initiate Gen:Lock?" he asked quickly. Caliban turned back to the computer, his metal fingers typing frantically. Suddenly, Chase vanished again. There was a tense second before Cammie's convulsions slowed to a stop and the pod tentatively released her. Chase appeared again, his holographic form glitching slightly as he decoupled from the network.

"What did you do?" Doctor Weller asked, turning to him curiously.

"I walked the mainframe and helped to ease Cammie's signal back into her body." Chase grinned, clearly proud of himself. "No need to thank me. Please clap."

"Yasamin, is she alive?" Weller asked, turning back to Cammie who was looking worryingly still. Yaz reached for Cammie's wrist to feel for a pulse and let out a breath.

"She's alive, but she's scarcely breathing. She needs the infirmary _now_!"

"Caliban, you heard her!" Weller turned to the robot who began typing again.

"I've got it." Valentina practically shoved Caliban away from the console and patched into the speaker system. "Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is Gen:Lock Team One requesting immediate medical support!" As Val spoke, an alarm started blaring throughout the base. It wasn't long before medics arrived and loaded Cammie onto a stretcher, carrying her out with the others following.

"I'll mix into the infirmary and meet her there." Chase said. At Weller's nod, he vanished and was in the infirmary before any of them arrived. When they finally did, Cammie was quickly seen to. One of the medics pulled the curtain across as they worked, with Valentina and Yasamin having to go in there briefly to show the medics how to undo the bodysuit so they could connect her to a heart monitor, but they were ejected immediately after that and were kept out for nearly ten minutes.

"What the hell happened?" Valentina demanded to no one in particular. "Did she run out of up time?"

"No, it wouldn't have caused that reaction until Doctor Weller tried to download her again." Chase shook his head. "If anything, it was like she tried to download _herself_ back into her human body and failed.

"But that's impossible." Yaz shrugged. "That would only have happened in the event of a system crash and we would all have been affected if that had happened."

"Well, I have a splitting headache, but that could just be stress." Val shook her head.

"Man, I get so many painkillers pumped into me on an hourly basis, I'm basically numb twenty-four seven." Chase grinned. "Hell, most of the time, I can't even feel my legs." It was a terrible attempt at humour in the wake of the team's situation, but they recognised that he was at least trying. For that much alone, they were able to manage grateful smiles. At that moment, a medic flung the curtain back.

"Okay, you can all stay for the next five minutes, but then only one at a time until she wakes up!" she told them sternly. Everyone nodded quickly, eager to be left alone and waited until she left before surrounding Cammie. Valentina couldn't help but flinch at the sight of her. She looked pale and drawn with wires connecting her to a heart monitor.

"Look, I love Cammie and all, but this is honestly a bit too close to home for me." Chase admitted. "Do you guys mind if I step out."

"Go." Valentina dismissed him with a flick of her hand, clearly not paying attention.

"Don't worry, Chase. She's just shaken." Yaz said, going to put an arm around him and realising it was futile when her arm went through his back. "We'll call you when she wakes up."

"Thanks." Chase nodded before vanishing in a shower of holographic hexagons as he mixed into a different room.

"**We're doing her no good sitting here**." Kazu shrugged, everyone looking his way as his speech was translated. "**Let's grab some food and check up on her later**."

"I hate to say it, but he's right." Yasamin sighed. "She probably won't be up for at least an hour yet. Let's give her some peace and come check on her later."

"You two go on." Valentina walked over to a plastic chair and sat down. "I just... I need a second to process things."

"Okay then." Yaz nodded. "Come on, Kazu." Without waiting for his response, she grabbed him by the elbow and dragged him outside. Val let out a breath and looked at Cammie's unmoving form. It was a few minutes before she was able to say anything.

"You'd better come back to me, _Malen'kiy krolik_." She gripped Cammie's hand in hers and relaxed back in the chair. "I feel I'm getting fond of you." She gently ran her other hand over Cammie's, he fingertips barely brushing her knuckles. Suddenly, Cammie shifted beside her, screwing her eyes shut tighter.

"God, it's too bloody bright in here!" Cammie rolled over and tried to bury her face in the sterile gel-lined infirmary pillow.

"Cammie!" Valentina quickly embraced her before getting up and pulling the curtain across to block out as much light as possible. "How many fingers am I holding up?" She showed Cammie three fingers only for Cammie to flip her off in response. "Oh, you're fine! Thank god for that!"

"My head hurts." Cammie gasped weakly before letting out a strangled sob.

"It's okay, _moya zayka_." Valentina held Cammie close and stroked her hair gently. "We'll get you patched up."

Mess Hall...

In the mess hall, the mood was bleak. Team morale was low and with no news on Cammie's condition or even the cause of the problem, tempers were starting to fray.

"**What if she doesn't come back at all**?" Kazu asked.

"How can you even think like that?" Yaz glared sharply at him from across the table.

"Yeah, come on, man!" Chase was the only one who didn't have any food in front of him owing to him not really being there, but for once wasn't the only one who couldn't eat. In an attempt to boost everyone's mood, he turned to Yasamin. "Are you going to finish that bacon?"

"Take it." She flicked it his way with her fork without even looking. It went right through him and splattered on the floor, the ketchup causing it to skid a short distance as a mini cleaning drone started chasing it to clean it up. "God dammit, I forgot _again_!" Unfortunately, no one laughed. Kazu just slapped a palm to his forehead and now Yasamin was angry at herself for forgetting that if Chase was in the room with them, it was hardly ever in body as well as spirit. Chase hoped that the gag would at least be enough to shut Kazu up about their current predicament, but unfortunately there was no such luck to be had.

"**Seriously though, she's the youngest and weakest of us. She's never fought before. It's inevitable that the weakest fall first**."

"Kazu, if you don't shut the hell up, I will personally Krav Maga your ass into submission!" Yaz threatened, leaning closer threateningly.

"**Come try it, Union rep**!" Kazu scoffed cockily. Yasamin gripped the edge of her dinner tray, her knuckles turning white under her gloves.

"What are you doing?" Chase cast a sideways glance, sensing that a fight was about to break out. "Yaz, stop!" There was no point. Yasamin was past the point of no return. She shunted her dinner tray in Kazu's direction and then jumped onto her seat, using the power boost from her suit to jump over him and twist his arm behind his back. Kazu yelled in pain and Yasamin was just about to break his arm when security teams started to charge in to break them up. Before they got there, however, Yaz was interrupted by an incoming transmission.

"_She's awake_! _She just woke up, but is complaining of migraines_. _They're going to try her on advanced painkillers_."

"That's great, Val." Chase replied. "We'll be _right down_." He threw a look to Kazu and Yaz that told them to put it behind them. Yaz let go of Kazu who let out a shaky breath.

"_No need for that, they're sending her back to the quarters_. _I'll go too and meet you all there_."

"Okay, the crew quarters it is." Chase nodded. "Copy that."

"Why are they discharging her so soon?" Yaz asked, grabbing her tray and taking it to the cleaning rack. Chase walked with her to bring her up to speed.

"Okay, so there was a recon sortie sent to scout a Union stronghold. They got made. Some of them came back in body bags. Most of them weren't that lucky."

"So the infirmary's overcrowded." Yaz summed up with a heavy sigh.

"Yeah, and I guess they'd sooner give the space to someone who fights for us officially rather than someone who on any and every record no longer exists." Chase shrugged. "Also, I'm sure the fact that the doc refuses to stop Abel from singing Gilbert and Sullivan every time he talks has _nothing_ to do with it."

"But she's a minor!" Yaz practically spat as she slammed her tray on the rack harder than she'd intended. "She's seriously ill! This isn't just a case of her having her head in the clouds!"

"Look, you've got a problem then you need to take it up with the colonel." Chase told her. "I can't help with that."

"Let's just see how Cammie is, first." Yaz stormed towards the exit with a face like thunder.

"I'll meet you there." Chase vanished from the room and appeared in their crew quarters. Cammie had just been transferred back and Chase noticed that Valentina had donated her own pillows to prop Cammie's head up more. "How is she?" he asked, walking over slowly.

"Just about alive." Cammie said weakly, her eyes closed and her face no less pale than the last time they'd seen her.

"Don't talk like that, Cammie. You'll be fine." Val said, pulling the covers up over her further and making sure she was comfortable. Nugget hopped up on the bed and cuddled in next to her, his tiny metal body pressing against her cheek and the small rumble motor in his chest making a noise akin to a purr as Cammie held him closer.

"Those painkillers really aren't helping."

"You've only just had them, Cammie. Give them at least ten minutes." Val advised.

"**If this is to get out of training tomorrow, you can forget it**." Kazu said. Yasamin darted sideways, the accents on her suit lighting up as she landed a solid punch to Kazu's temple. He was caught off guard and flung sideways, landing in a heap at the foot of his bunk.

"Oops, he slipped."

"Yasamin, I must ask that you refrain from putting a second Gen:Lock team member out of action." Everyone turned to see Doctor Weller walking into the room.

"Do we know what the hell is going on, yet?" Valentina asked, fury burning in her eyes.

"Well, I've been over her biological footage throughout the entire training session, examined recordings of her physiology, biology and endocrinology throughout and I can say with certainty that..." Everyone waited expectantly as he did a dramatic pause. "It's none of those things." Weller finished. Everyone sighed in frustration while Kazu started to recover and dragged himself back to his feet. Suddenly, Valentina jumped off Cammie's bunk and grabbed the waste paper bin from by the bedside table. She quickly sat Cammie up and held it under her head as an awful noise filled the room and Yaz couldn't help but grimace.

"**This clearly isn't getting any better**." Kazu said as he sat down on the edge of Yaz's bunk and shook his head to try and clear it.

"Hold on, I think I remember this." Chase said, making everyone look over at him. Ignoring them, he turned to the doctor. "Doc, do you remember when I first started on the program and I had those 'teething problems'? Doesn't this look just like that?"

"It does, but this isn't nearly Cammie's first time in a Holon, Chase." Weller reminded him.

"Yeah, but maybe we were wrong." Chase suggested. "Don't forget, Yaz didn't suffer with it. Neither did anyone else the first time they tried. But this _was_ Cammie's first time going in a Holon since our last mission. What do her problems now and my problems then have in common?"

"Wait, you've suffered this before and never said anything?" Val glared at Chase. "She could have _died_ in that pod, and you were sitting on something that could help us fix her up?"

"I didn't guess they could be related until just now when I really started thinking about it" Chase replied.

"Well for the first time in my life, I'm lost." Doctor Weller admitted, sounding defeated. "I honestly don't know what he's getting at."

"Look, the first time I went into a Holon, I'd just survived the battle of New York." Chase reminded him. "I was still adjusting to being in the tank and the trauma was having an effect on me. Getting into the Holon was easy, but getting out again brought everything flooding back. It was like I started to desynchronise. Cammie got literally torn apart by that weird Holon we saw, and now she's having the same problem. We were never looking at teething issues with me, we were looking at trauma!" As Chase explained, the pieces started to click into place in Weller's head. Everyone could practically see the wheels turning and Val inwardly pitied the team of hamsters that must be getting run ragged in there.

"My god, I think he's got it!" Weller's whole face lit up. "Right, well let's get her sorted then."

"Wait, so there's a cure? There's been a cure all along?" Valentina's glare shifted to the doctor.

"We learned through trial and error how to stop it in Chase when he first started." Weller told her, not giving any indication he'd even registered her tone. "Like Cammie, this kind of problem is ludicrously painful on the mind and can cause a lot of trouble if you let it, but unlike her it actually _stays_ down the first time you put it down."

"**So, what do we do**?" Kazu asked, managing to stand again.

"Kazu and Yasamin, I need you to run to the commissary and get anything cold." Weller instructed. "Get her a Cornetto or something. Valentina, get me the medical kit from the first aid cupboard over there. There should be a Kevlar sleeve with nitrogen gel in it. It's an ice pack that never melts. Bring it to me. Oh, and get rid of that bin first." Val opened the window and dumped the waste paper basket out of it, not caring where it would land as she ran to the first aid cupboard in the corner while Yasamin and Kazu ran from the room. She found what she was looking for and brought it over to the doctor.

"I think something's wrong with this. It feels lukewarm." Val said, looking at it suspiciously.

"No, it's just because the gel itself is in a protective bubble." Weller told her. "You need to break it against your kneecap and then slip it under her head exactly like they tell you _not_ to do on the underside of that very sleeve. We've got to essentially freeze her brain to stop the neural backlash."

Down in the commissary, Yaz had just grabbed all the ice creams she could carry and was about to leave. It was only when she was halfway out the door that she noticed Kazu wasn't with her. He was over by the beer counter and talking to the lady manning the till.

"**I'll take two cases of beer and a massive bag of ice. We're having a party**." He handed over his credit chip and the items were passed to him. He grabbed them and ran, not bothering to grab his credit chip again.

"You bought beer when we're supposed to be helping Cammie? How selfish!" Yasamin glared at him.

"**There's method in my madness**!" he lectured her as they charged down the corridor. With their suits granting them a massive speed boost, they were able to make it back to their room in record time. Kazu dumped the cases of beer on his bed before handing the bag of ice to Val. Only then did Yasamin realise his true intentions hadn't been selfish at all."

"You did well there, Kazu. Yasamin, I see you brought those ice creams. Give her one." Yasamin unwrapped a lime ice lolly and passed it up to Val, who offered it to Cammie.

"Come on, _milaya_. Down the hatch." It took a while, but Cammie was eventually able to get through the entire thing. Yaz had placed the rest in the mini freezer and was ready to take them out if needed. There didn't seem to be any need though, as Cammie's face had already regained some colour, even if she was shivering. Nugget had decided that it was far too cold for his liking and so had entrenched himself under the covers and buried himself beneath Cammie's chest. The bag of ice Kazu had bought had replaced the Kevlar sleeve under Cammie's head and the Kevlar sleeve now sat below the bag of ice for added coldness.

"This shouldn't do anything permanent, right?" Yaz asked cautiously.

"No, anything this does would be trivial compared to what leaving her condition unattended could have done." Weller assured her. "Granted, it was easier with Chase. We just froze him in his tank."

"Yeah, that was trippy as hell." Chase added.

"Just to be on the safe side, I think I'll take some neural print scans from her tomorrow to check there's no damage left behind." Weller shrugged. "In the meantime, I think we should take that ice away now. It's done its job." Valentina nodded and gently lifted Cammie's head up. Yaz climbed up and took the ice and Kevlar sleeve away, leaving just the freezing cold pillows in their place.

"So, this will be the last we hear of this?" Val looked to Weller for confirmation.

"Yes, freezing the brain like this slows down the functions of it and gives it time to memorise the pattern of the desynchronization effect." Weller told her. "Now, her brain will hopefully have learned how to correct it like Chase's did."

"So we know what to do if it starts happening to us too. That's handy." Yaz mused.

"So, what now?" Chase asked. "Wanna play some Siege 2?"

"**It would be unfair to play without her**." Kazu cast a glance in Chase's direction.

"You've definitely changed your tune." Yaz pointed out.

"**I thought she was faking it**!" Kazu protested. "**It's an easy mistake to make**."

"So, what then?" Yaz shrugged. "Who's up for another training session?"

"**I say this beer won't drink itself**." Kazu offered, holding up the cases.

"Yes, why did you get those anyway?" Weller threw a suspicious look at Kazu.

"**I had to have a reason to get a bag of ice**!" he defended.

"How about we just give her some privacy and maybe some quiet?" Cammie suggested, already sounding stronger.

"Duly noted." Yaz beckoned everyone towards the door. Chase winked at Cammie before vanishing from the room. Weller and Yaz also turned and left. Kazu gathered his beers and started towards the door before pausing. He took one from the case and quickly took it over to the bed.

"**That's for later. Don't tell Yasamin**."

"Thanks." Cammie grinned. "Val, can you hide that in my drawer?" Val nodded and took the bottle, hiding it behind Cammie's stack of mangas as Kazu made his exit. Val went to hop down and leave too, but Cammie stopped her with a hand on her arm. "Val? Would you mind staying? Just until I fall asleep." Val grinned to herself as she climbed back up and pulled the covers up over Cammie again before resting her head on the pillow.

"Sleep well, _moya zayka_." Cammie was already clearly asleep. Her breathing had slowed and her body had visibly relaxed. Val planted a gentle kiss on the side of her head, settled down with her and closed her own eyes, missing the grin that fleeted across Cammie's lips.

End!


End file.
